Canada gears Up PNP invites in its #221 draw in 2022 

Right after Immigration Minister Sean Fraser made his big announcement for resuming Express Entry draws for all the Immigrant Programs including both Foreign Skilled Workers as well as Canadian Experience Class in the early July this year, Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) invites a total of 829 Express Entry candidates in its 221st PNP draw announced on 27th April, 2022.

Draw Number: 221 Date of Draw: April 27, 2022 Number of Invitations Issued: 829 Minimum CRS: 772 Program Specified: Provincial Nominee Program

Taking note of the previous draws, IRCC has invited 1047 Express Entry candidates in the PNP draw concluded on March 3, 2022. While 1082 PNP candidates were allowed to apply for the permanent residence-Canada in the record-breaking draw on February 16, 2022.

CRS Score distribution 2022

In this new immigration round, the lowest-ranking candidate that got invited in the Express Entry draw had as low as a 772 CRS score only. While Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) candidates receive an additional 600 points towards their CRS score, it means that a base score of just 172 before receiving a provincial nomination got invited.

The Candidates who have received their invitations under the Provincial Nomination Program are now required to apply for permanent residence (Canada) within a time period of 60 days.

The future of PNP invites

The Immigration program which started in 1998 offers Canadian provinces and territories the opportunity to create their own immigration streams to better meet their labor market needs and economic development objectives. In today’s date and age, PNP accounts for a significant share of economic immigration to most regions in Canada.

In fact, by 2024, PNPs alone are expected to invite more than 93,000 immigrants per year to be admitted as permanent residents.

Invitations through a PNP Express Entry draw?

Each province in Canada (except Quebec and Nunavut) has its own nominee programs. Each program has its unique eligibility criteria. While there are many which require a connection to the province to apply, for instance, work experience, a job offer, a family member, or education in the province; there are several other programs available to foreign workers that do not demand any such connections to Canada.

The other way that PNPs follow to secure candidates is by scanning the Express Entry pool and inviting profiles with in-demand skills or work experience. These requirements change from draw to draw in response to labor market needs. Consequently, just by having an active Express Entry profile, there is always a possibility of receiving an invitation to apply for a provincial nomination.

Mechanism of EXPRESS ENTRY DRAWS

A suitable example of how to express entry draws work can be well illustrated as follows:-

Nina is 34, a data analyst for the past 8 years, she has written her IELTS and got a score of 7.5 in listening and 6.5 in all other skill categories. She has never been to Canada either to study or work. Nina by dropping her profile in the express entry pool also submitted her profile to the province of Saskatchewan through the International Skilled Worker: Saskatchewan Express Entry stream.

With a CRS score of 360, she managed to enter the express entry pool but Nina was invited by the province to apply for a provincial nomination, this drastically increased her score to 960 as the provincial nomination awards a full 600 points to the nominees. Nina then received an invitation to apply for permanent residence in the new draw for express entry.

Resuming FSWP and CEC in July?

Recently, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser announced that the draws for FSWP [Federal Skilled Worker Program] and CEC [Canadian Experience Class] candidates will resume this year in the early July. He also added that the processing time for most of the new applications of Express Entry will revive back to their standard time of six months.

Back in the pre-pandemic days, IRCC rarely conducted draws for PNP and only invited the applications with high CRS scores to apply for their permanent residence.

Also in the days of the early pandemic, IRCC’S primary focus was on the CEC candidates. And since these candidates were mostly residing in Canada and were not subjected to any travel restrictions that were imposed between the years 2020 and 2021, Canada was able to mark a record number of 4,05,000 immigrants by offering them the permanent residence status.

Nevertheless, IRCC has also given equal focus to the PNP candidates all around the pandemic with a motive to meet the provincial immigration goals.

The drawback of the strategy resulted in an accumulation of applications and was followed by a huge backlog within the immigration system as a result of which IRCC did not invite FSWP candidates since December 2020 and CEC candidates since September 2021.

Meanwhile, IRCC is targeting in bringing 55,000 permanent residents through express entry in 2022. And finally, by 2024, IRCC aims to invite more than 1, 10,000 immigrants through Express Entry.